Flipkart raises $20 mn from Tiger Global

BANGALORE: Online books to electronics e-retail venture, Flipkart has raised $20 million in third round of funding from existing investor, Tiger Global.

The funding will be used for capacity building in supply chain, upgrading technology and to expand marketing. There is a lot of euphoria in e-commerce right now and the industry in India is expected to grow by 47% to reach Rs 46,000 crore in 2011, according to a report published by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI). Also, e-retail will contribute about 6 per cent (Rs 2,700 crore by the end of 2011) to the overall e-commerce market.

"We expect to pick up a large share of the growing e-commerce pie. Investments in supply chain and technology will help us stay ahead of competition and achieve our goal of becoming the largest e-commerce player in the country," said Binny Bansal, Chief Operating Officer, Flipkart.

Flipkart, which started out as an online retailer of books in 2007, has slowly diversified into mobiles, cameras and movies and music. In April this year they started retailing electronic goods as well.

The e-commerce company had raised around $10 million from the global PE giant a year ago. Accel Partners had invested in the company in late-2009. With the latest Tiger Global investment, Flipkart has raised a total of almost $31 million.

The fast growing e-commerce segment has been attracting significant investor interest over the past few months. Tiger Global seems to be betting big on Indian e-commerce. In May this year, the fund had invested $16 million in online private sales retailer, Exclusively.in. Earlier this year, Tiger Global, along with Accel Partners, had invested $2.5 million in online babycare products retailer BabyOye.com.